The first public hearing on the DEIS for the Durst/Carvel project was held last night (February 6) in Pine Plains before the members of the Pine Plains Planning Board. About 150+ people were in the audience at the start at 7 p.m. It was a very long evening and the numbers had dwindled considerably by the time the public comments period began at about 9:15. The meeting finally ended at around 10:30.

Present from Milan were Democratic Town Board members Diane May and Ross Williams, Republican Town Board member David Byrne, CAC Chair George Lawrence, and Jack Grumet, the official liaison to Pine Plains from the Planning Board. Also present was Town planning consultant John Morabito. Conspicuous by his absence was Republican Town Supervisor Dick Barrett.

Durst was represented by Helena Durst and Alexander Durst, Dan Stone from the project engineer The Chazen Companies, and Matt Rudikoff, the planning consultant from Matthew D. Rudikoff Associates.

After the preliminary Planning Board formalities, Dan Stone from Chazen made a lengthy (1+ hours) PowerPoint presentation about the project, stressing how environmentally friendly the project would be, how inconspicuous it would be from the local roads, how little impact it would have, and, of course, how much money it would generate for the local economy in tax revenue, jobs, and economic activity.

It all sounds great—until you start taking a closer look at the basic assumptions. We’ll have a lot more to say about these as time goes by, but here are a few points to consider:

*The visual impact has very little to do with the real impact. According to the DEIS and as elaborated upon by Mr. Stone, the residences and structures will be largely concealed from view by anyone driving through the area on Route 199. The buildings will be tucked away along woodlines and behind ridgelines. But just because you can’t see most of the nearly 1,000 structures doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They are, and they’ll have major  impacts. Durst is trying to gloss this over by basically saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” But think of it this way: In all of Milan, with nearly 200 years of history and covering about 33 square miles, there are only about 1,000 homes and about 2,500 people. The Durst project would basically add an entire Milan to our area on 2,200 acres over the course of about ten years.

* Durst says the traffic impact will be negligible because the residents will spend most of their time within the complex. This is utter nonsense. There’s only so much golf anyone can play—and you won’t be able to play golf at all at least six months out of the year anyway. Unless the residents are going to be in lockdown while they’re here, they will obviously be driving in and out of the complex all the time. And that’s not even  taking into account the increased traffic from trucks (which aren’t allowed on the Taconic and will have to use the narrow and twisty local roads), other service vehicles, and visitors and employees.

* Durst says the residences will be occupied almost completely by weekenders, not full-time residents. To prove it, they provided comparisons to similar master planned communities—not one of which was in the Northeast, where golf and other forms of outdoor recreation are seasonal activities. And none of the comparable communities were within commuting distance of major urban areas such as Albany, New York City, White Plains and elsewhere in Westchester County, and the Stamford, Connecticut region. A better comparison might have been to Dutchess County housing statistics, which show that demand for large, expensive single-family homes on large parcels is high and that the number of residents commuting to New York City and elsewhere by rail and by car has increased markedly in the past decade. (You can find a lot of valuable information about housing in the Dutchess County Planning Department’s Smart Growth Housing Task Force report at http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/sghtfr.pdf.) There is no guarantee whatsoever that these new housing units will be occupied only by weekenders—and the past 20 years of housing history in Dutchess County points toward strong demand from full-time residents.

* In the DEIS, in their mailings, and again on stage last night, we were told that this is “. . . the most environmentally responsible development of its kind.” Maybe so, but given how environmentally irresponsible most developments are, that’s not as strong a recommendation as it sounds. And if the Durst Organization is so concerned about protecting the environment, why are they suing the Town of Milan to overturn our wetlands and watercourses protection law? 

We’ll have more reports on some of the other important areas of the DEIS, including the fiscal impacts, as time goes on and we get more information.

The Public Speaks Out

During the public comment period, a number of residents and interested parties spoke to the issues raised by the DEIS. Of approximately 15 speakers, almost all raised serious concerns. An important issue is the proposed zoning for Pine Plains. We already know that the project doesn’t conform to Milan zoning, but apparently it also won’t conform to the zoning that’s being proposed for Pine Plains. Under the proposed zoning, the total number of possible housing units would be considerably lower.

One of the speakers was Becky Thornton, president of the Dutchess Land Conservancy (see http://www.dutchessland.org for more about this well-regarded organization). She spoke specifically to chapter 5, Open Spaces Resources, of the DEIS.
Her conclusion, well documented by maps and solid data, is that Durst is being deceptive about the amount of open space they claim to be providing. Most of the areas they’re offering as community conservation areas are already constrained to development—they’re wetlands, watercourses, steep slopes, and other unbuildable areas. In addition, for each building lot, the DEIS counts all the land outside the building envelope as open space—in effect, front and back yards on private property are being considered community open space. The open space on private property will be protected by individual deed restrictions and conservation easements, which are notoriously difficult to manage and enforce. She said a lot more that made a lot of sense—we hope to bring you a detailed report from DLC soon.

Once again, we remind everyone: Ask the hard questions, and don’t settle for easy answers.

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